SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19550, 5 August 1925, Page 10

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING.

RECOGNITION OF AUCKLAND URGED. (Prom Our Own Corrfspondknt.) AUCKLAND, August 4. Strong exception is taken to the attitude of Messrs F. W. Furkert and F. J. Jones, who gave evidence in Auckland before the University Commission and raised an objection to the recognition of more than one school of engineering. The Auckland branch of the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers has passed a resolution urging the commission to recommend the official recognition of the Auckland School of Engineering by the University Senate, to enable its students to sit for the engineering degree examinations. An answer to southern evidence was made today by Mr S. E. Lamb (head of the Auckland Engineering School) mi l Mr M. Hooke O’Shea (Registrar of Auckland University College).. Mr Furkert, they stated, had given his reasons for opposing the establishment of two university engineering schools. He was not sure that Christchurch was the right location for such a school, but stated that this difficulty might be overcome by means of scholarships. An examination of this suggestion showed that it was not economical, and that it would perpetrate injustice being done to the engineering school in Auckland. In that school at present there were 40 full-time engineering students who wished to sit for the R.E. degree, but were prevented because this school . was not recognised by the Senate. If these 40 students were given scholarships on the understanding that they should study at Christchurch, and that such scholarships should be of the value of £SO per annum, the scheme would cost £2OOO per annum for Auckland alone. Account had been taken of the fact that such an addition to the numbers attending at Christchurch would inevitably lead to u demand for additional staff and equipment. It was preposterous that such expense should lie incurred so as to rob th a school at Auckland of its students, when this school had been certified to be efficiently staffed and equipped for the teaching of engineering. It would bo far better to give Auckland an extra grant of £2OOO per annum and to allow the local students to study in Auckland, adjacent to the largo engineering developments of the Auckland province.